For the manner in which men live is so different from the way in which they ought to live, that he who leaves the common course for that which he ought to follow will find that it leads him to ruin rather than safety.-Machiavelli

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Sunday, April 20, 2014

Dashboard Lights

Not the easiest task in the world. The dashboard light sockets on my friend's 1969 Harley Davidson FLH needed to be replaced. The problem is that they are swaged in. I managed to make a swage and press them in. I think the replacement sockets could have used a little more of a flange in order to make them press in better, however they took in the end.

The dashboard. The new sockets are off to the side. Using a sander, I ground off the flanges to remove the old ones. I turned the swage from a stainless bar.

I used a C-clamp held in a vice to press the new sockets. If I was going to do this again, I would tweak the shape of the swage ever so slightly and weld it to the clamp.

In other news, I replaced my helmet from last year's crash. My new sparkly blue Bell 500.

After the first start up, I noticed a transmission leak and a leak from the oil feed block on LaCucaracha. Got that fixed (hopefully).

About the Monastery...

The ill guided adventures of a burned out hooligan as he builds weird choppers and bakes delicious desserts. Along the way, he meets a stunning cast of characters and has adventures in motorcycles, cooking, and machine tools. Will he find salvation? Will he find the question to the ultimate answer? Who knows, but stay tuned...someone might get drunk and spill the beans.